"The immediate effect physically is just the burst in speed and the pure things that you see him do on the football field,'' Bielema said of his weight loss. "A lot of that is because of the heart and mind.

"He's doing some things naturally and instinctive that a lot of people just don't do.''

Bielema has a great deal of confidence that Ball and White can produce in short-yardage situations, even though neither comes close to matching the size of previous UW tailbacks.

"I think we're probably more explosive than we've ever been,'' Bielema said. "I understand we don't have that real big back like we had with P.J. (Hill) and John (Clay) and obviously Ron Dayne.

"But I like the running backs we have. I wouldn't really trade them in for anything.''

Ball doesn't believe the hype surrounding the Nebraska game will be a distraction.

"We're used to it from last year and Ohio State,'' he said. "And also with Russell Wilson coming into the program there were TV cameras on him throughout training camp.''

ESPN is featuring Wilson in a quarterback special to air in October.

"They followed him everywhere,'' Ball said. "It's second nature to us now. We're used to it.''